Our View: Another pension punt in Springfield

We're disappointed, although not surprised, that the General Assembly didn't deal with the state's pension problems during the first week of the veto session.

There appears to be no sense of urgency to deal with the worst unfunded pension liability in the country. If there were, legislators wouldn't have cut their first week short by a day.

"We know this is going to be difficult to do," Sen. Dave Syverson said in a news release. "But we have to be honest with employees, retirees, and taxpayers who already know the current system is not sustainable and is on its way to insolvency. We were elected to take the difficult votes. That's what leadership is."

Syverson's right. Inaction is costly, and the pension debt won't be diminished simply by ignoring it.

Lawmakers will return to Springfield on Nov. 5, but we fear that they're going to wait until January — if then — on pension reform.